New Jersey meeting Monday May 9

Superintendent of Schools James Crisfield will host an open discussion on the process of charter school applications Monday, May 9 at 7:45 p.m. in the Millburn High School auditorium.

The public can participate in a question-and-answer session with Crisfield and the Millburn Board of Education along with superintendents and Boards of Education from the Livingston, Maplewood-South Orange and West Orange districts.

Two groups of area residents have applied with the New Jersey Department of Education to start charter schools that would accept Millburn students, as well as students from the other districts whose representatives are invited to the meeting. Both schools, Han Mei Charter School and Hanyu International Academy Charter, would open in 2012 and offer Mandarin immersion at the elementary level.

In a phone interview with The Item of Millburn and Short Hills Tuesday, Crisfield said the idea of charter schools in areas like Millburn is “a great theory that completely falls on its face.”

If the charter schools are approved, Millburn would pay 90 percent of the average per-pupil cost of educating a child, he said. “It’s just cash off the top of our budget without a corresponding reduction in cost.”